Madison Township native Jane Hash stars in the 71-minute film titled “Plain Jane: The Shockumentary,” and reveals to audiences how she tackles life with a 2-foot-7-inch frame weighing 38 pounds.

Editor’s note: This story was revised at 1:35 p.m. Feb. 11 to include the correct name of Hash’s brittle-bone condition.
A Madison Township native who wasn’t expected to live several hours past birth because of a genetic disorder is giving viewers a look at all sides of her life with a newly released documentary.
Jane Hash, now 39, stars in the 71-minute film titled “Plain Jane: The Shockumentary,” and reveals to audiences how she tackles life with a 2-foot-7-inch frame weighing 38 pounds.
“The premise of the movie is overcoming obstacles, I don’t give anyone advice, but I show my challenges and how I overcome them and I do them unconventionally,” Hash said.
Some of the challenges discussed in the movie include graduating Madison High School in 1993, overcoming alcohol abuse, having an active sex life with men and women more than twice her height and handling the public prejudice that comes along with her appearance.
The movie also shows Hash’s battle with lawmakers to amend the federal Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act so she can apply for gainful employment without risking her Social Security-provided health care and the free home health aides that come along with it. To keep herself busy, Hash works as an unpaid blogger and podcaster focusing on issues affecting the disabled community at Hash It Out With Jane.
Hash’s brittle-bone condition diagnosed at birth, called osteogenesis imperfecta, prohibits her from walking and has caused hundreds of fractures throughout her body.
The film, which came out Dec. 2, is produced by Tom Trainer of Alternative Noise Productions. The movie is available to order online. Hash said so far they’ve distributed 100 DVD copies and are looking to sign a distribution contract to get more exposure.
In the meantime, Hash’s film was recently featured in the ReFrame Film Festival in Peterborough, Ontario. She said she couldn’t enter it into the upcoming Cleveland International Film Festival because its rules prohibit films that have already been showcased publicly in Cleveland.
In addition, she’s submitted her film to four other film festivals, but has either been turned down or received no response.
“I think there’s a reason U.S. film festivals didn’t jump on it,” she said. “It is OK to be disabled, it is OK to be gay or lesbian, it is sometimes OK to be non-Christian, but if you put all of that together, people freak out.”
Hash, said she lived with her mother on Tarbell Avenue up until age 26, after which she moved around between Painesville, Jefferson and Geneva. She now lives in Kent.
Portions of the film are shot in Madison including the Wagon Wheel Bar and Restaurant on Hubbard Road and Madison Township Park.
Hash said she is very happy that she and Trainer shot an interview with her mother before she passed away unexpectedly from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 2011. Hash’s mother, Charity DiCello, chaperoned her throughout public school in Madison as a “bodyguard” while raising four boys with no father.
“She was there from kindergarten up until I graduated, so everyone came to know her,” Hash said.

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About the Author

Simon Husted joined the News-Herald in February 2013. The Buffalo native and Kent State graduate covers schools and community issues in Fairport Harbor, Perry Township, Perry Village, North Perry, Madison Township and Madison Village. Reach the author at shusted@news-herald.com
or follow Simon on Twitter: @SimonSaysNH.